People living in two units in the Richmond Court Apartments south of Arnold have been displaced after large rocks crashed into one of the buildings Sunday morning, March 6. No injuries were reported, and the rocks did not cause major structural damage to the building, the Rock Community Fire Protection District reported.
The fire district got a call around 7:45 a.m. about the partial landslide after rocks dislodged from a cliff behind the apartments in the 3900 block of Richmond Court near I-55. The rocks went through sliding glass doors on the rear of the building, including at least one 12-by-12-foot boulder that slid off the cliff. Some debris ended up in the kitchen area in two apartments, Rock Fire spokeswoman Stephanie Jackson said.
She said she did not know how many people lived in the two units, which were deemed uninhabitable after the landslide. The Red Cross is helping those who lived in one of the units, and those who lived in the second unit are staying with a friend.
Two other units in the apartment building were unaffected, Jackson said.
She said no work was underway in the area, and the cause of the landslide is unknown.
“It is natural causes,” Jackson said. “It is similar to how potholes are made. As it rains, water mixes between the cracks behind the rock and freezes. We have had a little weather fluctuation recently, causing the water to freeze, expand, push the water out, melt and then the process starts again. Eventually, that pushes the rocks off the cliff.”
Jackson said it is nearly impossible to predict if more rocks will slide off the cliff behind the complex.
“If anybody ever finds themselves in this circumstance, they should evacuate anyone nearby and prevent people from going into the area,” she said. “Another thing to think about is gas lines. Had a rock ruptured a gas line, that would have been a hazardous release. Luckily in this instance, there wasn’t a ruptured gas line.”